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The New Poverty
75 years after the Beveridge The shocking extent of hardship in the UK Right now in the UK, 13 million people live in poverty; one in five children subsist below the poverty line. Figures such as these suggest devastating repercussions for health, education and life expectancy. The new poor, however, is an even larger group than these official statistics suggest, and its conditions are something new to our era. More often than not, these people are the working poor, living precariously and betrayed by austerity. In The New Poverty , Stephen Armstrong tells the stories of the most vulnerable in British society. He explores an unreported country, abandoned by politicians and stranded as the welfare state has shrunk. Furthermore, as benefit cuts continue into 2018 and beyond, Armstrong asks what will be the long-term impact of Brexit and—on the anniversary of the Beveridge Report—what we can do to keep the giants of indigence at bay.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
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April 30, 2018
This book is a testament to Osbornomics. After six years of politically inspired austerity, declining living standards, and economic stagnation, what does the country look like? This book provides part of an answer to this question.
It measures the state of the social fabric in the UK against the aspirations of the architects of the welfare state. We are taken through what it was that the Beveridge Report set up, and then the current perfoamance is measured against that standard. We are found wanting. There appears to be little in the way of compassion and empathy for our fellows who have fallen upon hard times, and chapter after chapter of the book reads like a statement of our collective failure. The author does force the point, but he also has one to make.
What has Osbornomics given us? We are now a country of food banks because many no longer have the resources to feed themselves. Osbornomics has given us a rather cruel and arbitrary system of financial support - Universal Credit - that is unbeleivably harsh in it's implementation. We now have a country where people live on their mate's sofas. Despite ploughing billions of pounds into banking bailouts, we are unable to ensure that everyone has a place to live. We are all proud of our NHS, but the introduction of charges and the relocation of units to inaccessible places - to save cost - means that many are denied basic healthcare. This is the Britain of Osbornomics - broke, hungry, homeless, and sick.
There are many parts of the book that are a very uncomfortable read. What stands out in my mind is the chapter on DIY dentistry. Because many can't afford the user charges associated with dental treatment, Poundland have introduced a range of DIY dental kits. It makes you feel uncomfortable just to think about a DIT tooth extraction, or lancing a gum abcess DIY. It is not difficult to see why the country is angry and hostile, especially towards immigrant communities.
The book harks back to some of the standards of the past. I was especially taken to be reminded of full employment as an economic policy objective. We are now a long way from that. Instead, we have a world of zero hours contracts, minimum wage jobs, and too large a segment of the population living in acute financial uncertainty. The book doesn't chart the rise of the precariat - it is a snapshot in time rather than a tale of how it came about - but the impacts of the precarious nature of life for many is well documented.
The author does not attribute this state of affairs to anyone. He ought to. Osbornomics is not the sole cause, just the latest, and most acute, manifestation. The situation ought to be attributed to the fact that we now live in a society where some people are doing rather well, and some people are in a desperate situation. Much of this can be attributed to the flawed implementation of policies of globalisation. Globalisation serves sme people well, and not others. For the policy to work, those doing well need to compensate those not doing well for their loss. That hasn't happened. Why? Some ascribe it to the failure of the political class, of all parties. I am quite sympathetic to that idea.
I would recommend this book as a means of getting in touch with those who you fail to understand. It helped me to understand why a majority voted to leave the EU. The consequences may be dire. Or they may not. Either way, what do they have to lose?
It measures the state of the social fabric in the UK against the aspirations of the architects of the welfare state. We are taken through what it was that the Beveridge Report set up, and then the current perfoamance is measured against that standard. We are found wanting. There appears to be little in the way of compassion and empathy for our fellows who have fallen upon hard times, and chapter after chapter of the book reads like a statement of our collective failure. The author does force the point, but he also has one to make.
What has Osbornomics given us? We are now a country of food banks because many no longer have the resources to feed themselves. Osbornomics has given us a rather cruel and arbitrary system of financial support - Universal Credit - that is unbeleivably harsh in it's implementation. We now have a country where people live on their mate's sofas. Despite ploughing billions of pounds into banking bailouts, we are unable to ensure that everyone has a place to live. We are all proud of our NHS, but the introduction of charges and the relocation of units to inaccessible places - to save cost - means that many are denied basic healthcare. This is the Britain of Osbornomics - broke, hungry, homeless, and sick.
There are many parts of the book that are a very uncomfortable read. What stands out in my mind is the chapter on DIY dentistry. Because many can't afford the user charges associated with dental treatment, Poundland have introduced a range of DIY dental kits. It makes you feel uncomfortable just to think about a DIT tooth extraction, or lancing a gum abcess DIY. It is not difficult to see why the country is angry and hostile, especially towards immigrant communities.
The book harks back to some of the standards of the past. I was especially taken to be reminded of full employment as an economic policy objective. We are now a long way from that. Instead, we have a world of zero hours contracts, minimum wage jobs, and too large a segment of the population living in acute financial uncertainty. The book doesn't chart the rise of the precariat - it is a snapshot in time rather than a tale of how it came about - but the impacts of the precarious nature of life for many is well documented.
The author does not attribute this state of affairs to anyone. He ought to. Osbornomics is not the sole cause, just the latest, and most acute, manifestation. The situation ought to be attributed to the fact that we now live in a society where some people are doing rather well, and some people are in a desperate situation. Much of this can be attributed to the flawed implementation of policies of globalisation. Globalisation serves sme people well, and not others. For the policy to work, those doing well need to compensate those not doing well for their loss. That hasn't happened. Why? Some ascribe it to the failure of the political class, of all parties. I am quite sympathetic to that idea.
I would recommend this book as a means of getting in touch with those who you fail to understand. It helped me to understand why a majority voted to leave the EU. The consequences may be dire. Or they may not. Either way, what do they have to lose?
September 1, 2019
Divided Kingdom
There are very few words I can muster to describe the heart ache I experienced reading this. When reading of poverty and inequality anywhere in the world you will find yourself in a state of shock. However, when scrutinising said poverty within your country of birth, the feeling is only further compounded. Only when the author Stephen Armstrong breaks down, in detail, the mechanics of austerity, the deliberate and conceited effort to pull any social safety net from under the feet of those who had so little already, do you begin to understand what true despair must feels like. There are not enough cruel words I could muster for those that could make a difference to the lives of the communities suffering in England, who instead chose to use them as a means to further accumulate wealth by de-funding services that literally create Dickensian pockets of misery for hundreds of thousands.
The suicide, the depression, the homelessness, the violence, the superfluous job market that provides no safety, and the media that chooses demonises all who suffer under this madness. All of these things highlight what a mess the UK is in.
This is a horrific read, but Brexit makes a whole lot more sense when you close the last page of this book. I would also recommend reading Moneyland alongside this. It's about how corporation and rich individuals tax dodge and have created complex systems to store and hide wealth. It's almost as if these two books were made to be read together as they provide two sides of the coin that this society has created for such a system to function. Extreme wealth and extreme poverty.
There are very few words I can muster to describe the heart ache I experienced reading this. When reading of poverty and inequality anywhere in the world you will find yourself in a state of shock. However, when scrutinising said poverty within your country of birth, the feeling is only further compounded. Only when the author Stephen Armstrong breaks down, in detail, the mechanics of austerity, the deliberate and conceited effort to pull any social safety net from under the feet of those who had so little already, do you begin to understand what true despair must feels like. There are not enough cruel words I could muster for those that could make a difference to the lives of the communities suffering in England, who instead chose to use them as a means to further accumulate wealth by de-funding services that literally create Dickensian pockets of misery for hundreds of thousands.
The suicide, the depression, the homelessness, the violence, the superfluous job market that provides no safety, and the media that chooses demonises all who suffer under this madness. All of these things highlight what a mess the UK is in.
This is a horrific read, but Brexit makes a whole lot more sense when you close the last page of this book. I would also recommend reading Moneyland alongside this. It's about how corporation and rich individuals tax dodge and have created complex systems to store and hide wealth. It's almost as if these two books were made to be read together as they provide two sides of the coin that this society has created for such a system to function. Extreme wealth and extreme poverty.
September 28, 2022
Using William Beveridge’s seminal 1942 text as both a template and source of inspiration, this makes for deeply uncomfortable reading, a veritable textbook of horrors, all symptomatic of Neo-Liberalism running riot. We encounter terms like “Managed decline” and “managed rundown” two of the terms coined by the Thatcher government to describe what they were intentionally doing to specific areas of their own country. One university lecturer also talks of the “Suburbanization of poverty”
One thing that shocks me more than Trump getting voted in, was the landslide victory of the Conservative government and Boris Johnson. What were all of those English people thinking?...Of course what Armstrong describes are the fruits of the tried and tested template, which has been used since the late 70s, namely-privatise, deregulate, tax cuts for the rich, punish the poor and blame and shame them for being poor. It’s a simple yet devastatingly effective tactic which has been perpetuated by the hateful right wing media for decades and every government since 1979.
After all when you dedicate time to making up lies about the poorest and neediest in society, you are conveniently detracting from the real parasites who extract far more from the public purse in billions of pounds worth of tax avoidance schemes and various tax subsidies, and coincidentally some of the people who do that just happen to own those same media outlets.
The current English government has no longer bothered to maintain any pretence of being fair or caring about the poor, the latest round of devastating tax cuts is surely closer to the inhumanity, typically shown by dictators or kleptocrats in third world countries. But they know how much they have gotten away with in the past, so are powered by a sense of impunity and entitlement which makes them think, “Who’s gonna stop us?” and “What are they gonna do about it?” After all look what Boris got away with.
In a nation which has suffered greatly from the current government’s political incompetence, the Conservatives remain oblivious or apathetic towards the phenomenal damage and desperation. Although they are the ones who can help the most, but instead of taking the opportunity to help people’s miserable circumstances, instead they employ the disaster capitalism model and exploit this to extract even more from the system at the expense of the most neediest and vulnerable.
So this book documents many examples from a corrupt system which is not only shameless in the face of the vast and increasing poverty and deprivation it has created, but appears to delight and celebrate itself for the greed it has gotten away with. This is inhumanity in the true sense of the word, thanks to the combined work of political parties on both side they will soon succeed in eroding and eventually destroying all of the gains made by Attlee’s government and consign much of Britain to conditions which were of pre-WWII standard.
One thing that shocks me more than Trump getting voted in, was the landslide victory of the Conservative government and Boris Johnson. What were all of those English people thinking?...Of course what Armstrong describes are the fruits of the tried and tested template, which has been used since the late 70s, namely-privatise, deregulate, tax cuts for the rich, punish the poor and blame and shame them for being poor. It’s a simple yet devastatingly effective tactic which has been perpetuated by the hateful right wing media for decades and every government since 1979.
After all when you dedicate time to making up lies about the poorest and neediest in society, you are conveniently detracting from the real parasites who extract far more from the public purse in billions of pounds worth of tax avoidance schemes and various tax subsidies, and coincidentally some of the people who do that just happen to own those same media outlets.
The current English government has no longer bothered to maintain any pretence of being fair or caring about the poor, the latest round of devastating tax cuts is surely closer to the inhumanity, typically shown by dictators or kleptocrats in third world countries. But they know how much they have gotten away with in the past, so are powered by a sense of impunity and entitlement which makes them think, “Who’s gonna stop us?” and “What are they gonna do about it?” After all look what Boris got away with.
In a nation which has suffered greatly from the current government’s political incompetence, the Conservatives remain oblivious or apathetic towards the phenomenal damage and desperation. Although they are the ones who can help the most, but instead of taking the opportunity to help people’s miserable circumstances, instead they employ the disaster capitalism model and exploit this to extract even more from the system at the expense of the most neediest and vulnerable.
So this book documents many examples from a corrupt system which is not only shameless in the face of the vast and increasing poverty and deprivation it has created, but appears to delight and celebrate itself for the greed it has gotten away with. This is inhumanity in the true sense of the word, thanks to the combined work of political parties on both side they will soon succeed in eroding and eventually destroying all of the gains made by Attlee’s government and consign much of Britain to conditions which were of pre-WWII standard.
January 22, 2018
The 'fun' thing about being in the aid industry and reading about the new poverty in the west - courtesy decades of austerity politics and labour market de-regulation - is that everything sounds so familar, just with trends in the opposite direction.
Highlights from 'The New Poverty' (VERSO, 2017:
People (in the UK) living in the poorest neighbourhoods died, on average, seven years earlier than people in the richest neighbourhoods. Under-five mortality in the UK is double that of Sweden. Five-fold difference in infant mortality rates between the lowest and highest socio-economic groups. Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty estimate that 2 million people in the UK are malnourished. 36 per cent of the UK population are just one heating bill or a broken washing machine away from hardship. Between April and September 2016, the UK's largest food bank distributed 519,342 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, 188,584 going to children.
Ever since 'we' decoupled productivity gains from wages and cut back on the welfare state (i.e., rolling out supply-side oriented, neoliberal reforms with tons of very, very shitty jobs to compete with cheap labour in Asia and elsewhere) we have slowly created a new class of people living in levels of poverty and deprivation totally incompatible with the 21st century living standards in the west. Appreciate the book's journalistic rather than academic approach with plenty of interviews with the 'new poor' most of them actually in work but under conditions (agency work below minmum wage, 'zero-hour contracts') which don't allow them a dignified living. Living in those kinds of neighbourhoods where 70 per cent voted for 'leave'.
Good news: Corbyn with his radical anti-austerity platform was able to win some of those voters back from the UKIP (and mobilize millions of young and disenfranchised). The poor are not stupid, they'll not buy into social democracy's/ labour right's same old neoliberalism sugar coated in social justice lingo.
Highlights from 'The New Poverty' (VERSO, 2017:
People (in the UK) living in the poorest neighbourhoods died, on average, seven years earlier than people in the richest neighbourhoods. Under-five mortality in the UK is double that of Sweden. Five-fold difference in infant mortality rates between the lowest and highest socio-economic groups. Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty estimate that 2 million people in the UK are malnourished. 36 per cent of the UK population are just one heating bill or a broken washing machine away from hardship. Between April and September 2016, the UK's largest food bank distributed 519,342 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, 188,584 going to children.
Ever since 'we' decoupled productivity gains from wages and cut back on the welfare state (i.e., rolling out supply-side oriented, neoliberal reforms with tons of very, very shitty jobs to compete with cheap labour in Asia and elsewhere) we have slowly created a new class of people living in levels of poverty and deprivation totally incompatible with the 21st century living standards in the west. Appreciate the book's journalistic rather than academic approach with plenty of interviews with the 'new poor' most of them actually in work but under conditions (agency work below minmum wage, 'zero-hour contracts') which don't allow them a dignified living. Living in those kinds of neighbourhoods where 70 per cent voted for 'leave'.
Good news: Corbyn with his radical anti-austerity platform was able to win some of those voters back from the UKIP (and mobilize millions of young and disenfranchised). The poor are not stupid, they'll not buy into social democracy's/ labour right's same old neoliberalism sugar coated in social justice lingo.
March 8, 2018
Discussing what the Institute for Fiscal Studies(IFS) termed the ‘new poor’. Armstrong argues that post WW2 era gave rise to a well intentioned welfare system which mapped out a route to help people escape poverty. But this mission requires continued work and has not evolved in line with the growth of neoliberal society.
The profile of poverty continues to change, two-thirds of the new poor, the IFS explained, live in households where there is someone in work. Officially, in 2014–15, there were 13.5 million people – or 21% of the UK's population are living in poverty in the UK. up from 12m in 2004(21%). But since then the number of families in poverty with at least one adult in work has risen by 2m, to 7.4m, or 55%. More alarmingly the IFS predicts absolute child poverty will rise from 15.1% in 2015 to 18.3% in 2020.
Most enlightening of all from this book were the myriad of debt traps in renting. In particular rent-to-own companies like BrightHouse, PerfectHome or Buy-As-You-View (BAYV) charging ludicrous amounts. Also, Housing benefits have been frozen and fallen out of line with rents meaning even if you are unable to pay rent, you have to somehow find a way to make up the difference?
Really enjoyed the great discussions with Brexiteers in this book without as much of the vicious scorn. "The Remain people offered no hope for anybody – they just said ‘‘stay the same’’. If you’re living in a shit council estate or somewhere the shops have all shut, why the hell would you want to stay the same?"
The profile of poverty continues to change, two-thirds of the new poor, the IFS explained, live in households where there is someone in work. Officially, in 2014–15, there were 13.5 million people – or 21% of the UK's population are living in poverty in the UK. up from 12m in 2004(21%). But since then the number of families in poverty with at least one adult in work has risen by 2m, to 7.4m, or 55%. More alarmingly the IFS predicts absolute child poverty will rise from 15.1% in 2015 to 18.3% in 2020.
Most enlightening of all from this book were the myriad of debt traps in renting. In particular rent-to-own companies like BrightHouse, PerfectHome or Buy-As-You-View (BAYV) charging ludicrous amounts. Also, Housing benefits have been frozen and fallen out of line with rents meaning even if you are unable to pay rent, you have to somehow find a way to make up the difference?
Really enjoyed the great discussions with Brexiteers in this book without as much of the vicious scorn. "The Remain people offered no hope for anybody – they just said ‘‘stay the same’’. If you’re living in a shit council estate or somewhere the shops have all shut, why the hell would you want to stay the same?"
February 15, 2019
I've been researching poverty in Brazil for almost 10 years. I'm Brazilian myself. But reading this book turned my stomach upside down: current poverty in the UK is just about one of the cruelest expression of neoliberalism. Must-read to any one studying poverty, capitalism, and any person interested in knowing the importance of building, or strengthening, a welfare state.
September 4, 2024
This is quite a challenging book to read in that it is hard to turn the pages without feeling both really angry, and also kind of helpless when reading what successive Conservative governments have done to the UK. It makes ones blood boil thinking about the damage and the wreckage done to the working class in the UK and the absolute misery inflicted on a proportion of the population through ideological means.
'The New Poverty' is a book published in 2017 (I bought it around the time but have only just got round to reading it) which takes the 75th anniversary of the Beveridge Report (a report that is often seen as a foundation of the welfare state) and analyses the state of the UK against the aims of the report. It is damning reading.
Each chapter starts with a statement from the Beveridge Report and the problems the author found and the proposals to tackle them. These chapters cover things like access to basic essentials (money, food, electricity, the internet), pensions, access to quality healthcare, access to benefits when not working, obtaining good quality work, housing needs and so on. Later chapters perhaps do not fit the approach quite so well, but nevertheless add to the book, covering gender and the impact of poverty on women, immigration, a rationale for a Brexit vote (which was very topical at the time) and also a chapter about community action and development which sticks out like a sore thumb in this book of misery but nevertheless is a welcome addition.
Each chapter is a little formulaic and one can tell that the author is a journalist as each chapter perhaps reads like a 'standalone long read in a magazine' rather than building a narrative. The chapters typically give you some hard data which is hard to read when each number represents a family or individual. The chapters then land their message home by providing real life stories, of people with hopes, dreams and aspirations and the reader learns just how desperate and precarious their lives are through no fault of their own and the withdrawal of virtually every safety net. These are stories of people who are sleeping rough, going days without food, being bullied by appalling employers, undertaking DIY dentistry, being sanctioned by the state for not meeting draconian job search requirements, where mandated tasks are dependent on having a phone, or internet connection. I'm glad I read about real people but it's heart-breaking because it could so easily be anyone of us.
The line, "you're more likely to become homeless than win the lottery" hit me hard, because in my youth I experienced homelessness and poverty and I feel incredibly lucky to have a little security now, but this book still scared me because I recognise much privilege is built on sand. I had some rough times in my youth but when I compare what I experienced with someone maybe ten or twenty years younger would have experienced at a similar age it would have been so much harder for people now. What makes my blood boil, is that this is a political choice and we've had successive governments blame people for being poor when they have created the conditions for poverty.
They've wrecked housing, they've wrecked education, they've wrecked the health service, they've wrecked employment rights - through ideology and incompetence!
One of the worst things about this book is reading it maybe seven years after publication because in virtually every area things have got worse rather than better. There are more people homeless, more people in insecure, gig economy jobs, more people accessing food banks and we've kind of accepted this as a new normal. There are fewer public services. The only thing that MAY have improved is the level of digital inclusion but that's of limited comfort. It's like the Johnny Rotten quote and about 'making the country worse'.
So this book touched me on a personal level, thinking 'about people like me' but it also made me reflect on the design of government services and the unethical nudge theory. How much of digitisation and simplification of the welfare system was to 'save money and costs of service' and how much was to make life as difficult as possible for claimants. How much was down to hierarchies of target chasing and incompetence and following rules and how much was down to maliciousness. The one thread through the book is an absence of humanity. An absence of people thinking about the big picture, an absence of people saying 'hey, folk are slipping through the cracks and are harmed because of things we are doing'. I see this professionally now - where people make decisions and have an absence of empathy, seeing people as numbers, rather than people worth caring for.
Many books like this lose their immediacy over time as things change but it's sad to read this is still relevant. The book isn't perhaps explicit enough in saying how or why we are where we are, but it presents a damning picture of the UK. One can only be left with the conclusion that there is a criminal class in Westminster, and there will be no justice for the lives they have ruined.
'The New Poverty' is a book published in 2017 (I bought it around the time but have only just got round to reading it) which takes the 75th anniversary of the Beveridge Report (a report that is often seen as a foundation of the welfare state) and analyses the state of the UK against the aims of the report. It is damning reading.
Each chapter starts with a statement from the Beveridge Report and the problems the author found and the proposals to tackle them. These chapters cover things like access to basic essentials (money, food, electricity, the internet), pensions, access to quality healthcare, access to benefits when not working, obtaining good quality work, housing needs and so on. Later chapters perhaps do not fit the approach quite so well, but nevertheless add to the book, covering gender and the impact of poverty on women, immigration, a rationale for a Brexit vote (which was very topical at the time) and also a chapter about community action and development which sticks out like a sore thumb in this book of misery but nevertheless is a welcome addition.
Each chapter is a little formulaic and one can tell that the author is a journalist as each chapter perhaps reads like a 'standalone long read in a magazine' rather than building a narrative. The chapters typically give you some hard data which is hard to read when each number represents a family or individual. The chapters then land their message home by providing real life stories, of people with hopes, dreams and aspirations and the reader learns just how desperate and precarious their lives are through no fault of their own and the withdrawal of virtually every safety net. These are stories of people who are sleeping rough, going days without food, being bullied by appalling employers, undertaking DIY dentistry, being sanctioned by the state for not meeting draconian job search requirements, where mandated tasks are dependent on having a phone, or internet connection. I'm glad I read about real people but it's heart-breaking because it could so easily be anyone of us.
The line, "you're more likely to become homeless than win the lottery" hit me hard, because in my youth I experienced homelessness and poverty and I feel incredibly lucky to have a little security now, but this book still scared me because I recognise much privilege is built on sand. I had some rough times in my youth but when I compare what I experienced with someone maybe ten or twenty years younger would have experienced at a similar age it would have been so much harder for people now. What makes my blood boil, is that this is a political choice and we've had successive governments blame people for being poor when they have created the conditions for poverty.
They've wrecked housing, they've wrecked education, they've wrecked the health service, they've wrecked employment rights - through ideology and incompetence!
One of the worst things about this book is reading it maybe seven years after publication because in virtually every area things have got worse rather than better. There are more people homeless, more people in insecure, gig economy jobs, more people accessing food banks and we've kind of accepted this as a new normal. There are fewer public services. The only thing that MAY have improved is the level of digital inclusion but that's of limited comfort. It's like the Johnny Rotten quote and about 'making the country worse'.
So this book touched me on a personal level, thinking 'about people like me' but it also made me reflect on the design of government services and the unethical nudge theory. How much of digitisation and simplification of the welfare system was to 'save money and costs of service' and how much was to make life as difficult as possible for claimants. How much was down to hierarchies of target chasing and incompetence and following rules and how much was down to maliciousness. The one thread through the book is an absence of humanity. An absence of people thinking about the big picture, an absence of people saying 'hey, folk are slipping through the cracks and are harmed because of things we are doing'. I see this professionally now - where people make decisions and have an absence of empathy, seeing people as numbers, rather than people worth caring for.
Many books like this lose their immediacy over time as things change but it's sad to read this is still relevant. The book isn't perhaps explicit enough in saying how or why we are where we are, but it presents a damning picture of the UK. One can only be left with the conclusion that there is a criminal class in Westminster, and there will be no justice for the lives they have ruined.
September 9, 2018
This will - rightfully - hurt yet at the same time it will make your heart bleed.
The macro stuff - the bigger picture setting of a number of anecdotal examples - combines with these bedrock tales of woe and the net result is a searing indictment of all that is wrong with this current government and their (lack of) social policies and this morally sinking island.
Makes you afraid and ashamed at the same time, to be living here and alongside all these terrible things happening to decent, hard working people who just want to get by. Brave book to write - not because it's a contentious subject (it really isn't and the subject is so real it hurts) - but because it hasn't been done in this detail and been put out there like this.
No shoulds in life but this one definitely should be on every History, Sociology and Politics course text book list as well as cited in lessons across the board.
The macro stuff - the bigger picture setting of a number of anecdotal examples - combines with these bedrock tales of woe and the net result is a searing indictment of all that is wrong with this current government and their (lack of) social policies and this morally sinking island.
Makes you afraid and ashamed at the same time, to be living here and alongside all these terrible things happening to decent, hard working people who just want to get by. Brave book to write - not because it's a contentious subject (it really isn't and the subject is so real it hurts) - but because it hasn't been done in this detail and been put out there like this.
No shoulds in life but this one definitely should be on every History, Sociology and Politics course text book list as well as cited in lessons across the board.
May 11, 2023
Depressing but necessary series of essays published in 2017. Very good on the status of poor towns in Wales and the North-East, which cogently argue the collapse of the welfare state's idealism via the Five Evils of Beveridge's report. If Labour get into power, they may find things are being economic repair.
January 12, 2019
Well written account of life in Britain in an age of austerity. Britain gives away £13 Billion a year in foreign aid. Reading the accounts in Stephen Armstrong's book makes me wonder why.
February 27, 2019
Brilliant presentation of some necessary research and the need to end establishment economics
July 2, 2022
An eye opener. I cannot even describe the sadness, helplessness and anger towards the government and privileged social classes I felt when I read this book… Must read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews